English: The grave of Mary Randolph at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery.

Mary Randolph was born in August 1762. She was a descendant of Thomas Rolfe and his wife, the legendary Pocahontas. Her father was Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of the Virginia Convention of 1776. Her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., married one of Thomas Jefferson's daughters; he later served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Virginia. Her sister, Virginia Randolph Cary, was a noted women's author. Mary married her cousin, David Meade Randolph. Their home became a center of Federalist Party social activity.

In 1824, Mary Randolph wrote "The Virginia House-Wife," one of the most influential housekeeping and cook books of the nineteenth century. She died on January 23, 1828, and was the first person to be buried at Arlington House. She was buried there because her cousin was Mary Custis, wife to George Washington Parke Custis, Arlington's builder.